The Journey Continues

The end of an Era.

Astronomy has always been interesting to me. I’ve checked out remarkable astronomical events through the years. They set a long period drumbeat that is syncopated by life. The drumbeats of astronomical events come at irregular intervals due to the nature of the Roman calandar versus the real calendar of the sun and the moon.

Last Moonset of the decade Over the Hudson
*Photo by Dan Scolnick*

I remember these events. As an 8 year old I remember going outside to check out some kind of eclipse that “wasn’t going to happen again until after the year 2000”. In 1968 the year two thousand seemed like it could never come. I remember calculating that i would be 40 years old in 2000. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like being so old as 40!! Even my father was no where near 40! That’s OLD!

10 years later, I took an astronomy course in college when I was 18, looked through the telescope and saw the rings of Saturn. WOW! It was really out there! I was part of something vastly bigger than I could Imagine. I went to Jones Beach at 3am to watch a lunar eclipse in my 20’s. In my 30’s i kept ‘routine’ track of the moon cycles. In my 40’s best friend Dudley died, while driving home from his burial, i saw the most gorgeous harvest full moon on the last day of august in 2004. I felt connected spiritually to the universe and that Dudley was at rest.

I turned 60 this year. I never thought I would live this long. I have outlived both of my parents. It’s a quarter way through the 2000’s already. Some things have not changed since I was 8 years old. I still love cats. I still love sailing. I still race my catamaran. I still love driving. I still ride my bicycle. I love to cook. I love to teach. There are new things I am doing, I love to take ‘my kids’ sailing. There are more new things on the horizon. I have a family of choice, some of which go back several decades. I have family of choice that were born in this century. I have famliy of choice that came and went within a single decade. The syncopated drumbeat goes on inexorably echoing down the corridors of time.

Here I sit, at 60, at the cusp of major changes in my life. How fitting. This morning is the last full moon setting on the 2010’s. The next full moon is going to be in the next decade. January of 2020. We are all time travelers. Last post I wrote about moving forward and backwards in time. We all move forward by default, One day at a time.

I don’t know if I’ll live to see 2030. I have no reason to believe i won’t. I will be 70 years old then. I hope i will still be doing the things i love and i hope i will still be doing new things. To quote Gloria Steinem with respect to her being 83: “that’s someone elses age, not mine.”

Goodbye 2010’s, it’s been tough. I’m glad to see you go. I’ve lost loved ones and treasured things. I have gained new loved ones and new treasured things. Learn something new each day. Be generous of spirit. TRY to see myself as others see me.

I will meet the 2020’s and my 60’s with the help of my past experience, my present family of choice, and look forward to the relationships and adventures of my future.